spelling bee
a spelling competition won by the individual or team spelling the greatest number of words correctly; spelldown.
Origin of spelling bee
1Words Nearby spelling bee
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use spelling bee in a sentence
Avant-garde recalls looking through the list of national spelling bee participants with her father.
Zaila Avant-garde Knows the Troubling History Behind Her Historic Spelling Bee Win | Janell Ross | July 16, 2021 | TimeThen, as now, the national spelling bee was more than a contest of words.
Zaila Avant-garde Knows the Troubling History Behind Her Historic Spelling Bee Win | Janell Ross | July 16, 2021 | TimePreliminary rounds, typically held in the days leading up to the spelling bee finals, had instead been held virtually over the past several weeks.
Zaila Avant-garde wins 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee, becoming bee’s first African American champion | Amy B Wang, Timothy Bella | July 9, 2021 | Washington PostIt features a young girl at a spelling bee who is asked to spell “Hagan.”
In North Carolina, GOP Overreach May Be More Unpopular Than Obama | Dean Obeidallah | November 3, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIn an ad called “spelling bee,” a young child spells “Pryor” as “O-B-A-M-A,” to which the judge says, “Close enough.”
Can Arvind Mahankali spell “knaidel” to win the Scripps National spelling bee?
Beyoncé, Jimmy Fallon, Will and Jaden Smith, and More Viral Videos | The Daily Beast Video | June 1, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTIndian-American Arvind Mahankali just won the Scripps National spelling bee.
If You Grow Up Indian-American, College Graduation Isn’t Enough | Anita Raghavan | May 31, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTArvind Mahankali of Queens was not yet of kindergarden age when he chanced to see the National spelling bee finals on television.
Queens Phenom Goes for Redemption at National Spelling Bee Finals | Michael Daly | March 22, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTThere was a spelling-bee every Friday afternoon, for Sam the only endurable event of the school exercises.
Mark Twain, A Biography, 1835-1910, Complete | Albert Bigelow PaineRosalie did not know that the teacher was to leave Tinkletown surreptitiously until after the spelling-bee.
The Daughter of Anderson Crow | George Barr McCutcheonThis red delaine I wore to a spelling bee when I was about sixteen and I got a book for a prize for standing up next to last.
Patchwork | Anna Balmer MyersIt had a good deal the look of a spelling-bee with a teacher who meant to stand no nonsense.
The Huntress | Hulbert FootnerI have heard of a bee getting so far in his education as to become a "spelling bee."
British Dictionary definitions for spelling bee
a contest in which players are required to spell words according to orthographic conventions
Origin of spelling bee
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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